Friday, July 15, 2011

IWRG TV 7/10/11 (taped 7/7/11)

A review of a current show? YEP!

Rolling Boy/Triton vs ?Anubis?/Keshin Black: I'm not sure if it was Anubis on the rudo team. All the results list him but there was no graphic and I watched without audio. This guy looked very different from the regular Anubis which is why I'm not sure. Or maybe it's a new Anubis? Either way he looked excellent here and basically carried the match for all three guys who are still very green. I liked Triton better when he was dressing like 1993 Triton (aka Pantera). Some rough moments with Rolling Boy/Keshin Black which is to be expected but otherwise nothing was really messed up. They teased dives in the third fall until Rolling Boy hit a weak tope suicida and Triton won with a shooting star press. My style of IWRG opener.

Black Terry/Multifacetico/Angelico vs Los Oficiales: Really fun match! Naturally it was centered around Multi/911 who had their masks ripped up and were both bleeding. Only in IWRG do you see that these days! Black Terry got a few moments to shine. Loved his vicious lariats and selling when AK-47 nailed him with a tope suicida and Terry rolled around like his shoulder had just popped up which got both refs distracted so Multi could nail 911 with a tombstone! Huge heat! (well for the 50 or so fans in attendance that is) Really the only negative here was Angelico who seems to not be a fan of selling and much prefers to be doing his fancy kicks or third-rate flying. Can't wait for the mask match!

Trauma I vs El Hijo De La Park - Juniors Title: Loved it! Park's kid is really starting to get it which is frightening to see. He still needs to get bigger though if he wants to be taken seriously - especially as a rudo. Same advice goes for Bestia 666 although that has nothing to do with this match. I was shocked at how well Park hung in on the mat and at the same time worked the crowd perfectly as a rudo. Some really great matwork as you'd expect and the type of thing you only get here in Naucalpan. In the second fall Park did an awesome tornillo dive that the camera just barely caught in time. My favorite spot was Trauma headbutting Park into the crowd to start the third fall. Looked fucking BRUTAL! He did again a bit later. A couple of times they teased the match was "breaking down" as both guys put their fists up and looked like they were gonna punch the crap out of each other before it settled down. That was very neat. Honestly this would have been the perfect match if not for generic overbooking by IWRG as the seconds (Trauma II/AK-47) got involved for no reason at all since it didn't even effect the finish and why would an Oficial help Park's kid? Finish was also overbooked as after many great nearfalls Trauma I hit a vicious Rosa DDT and Park clearly kicked out at 2 but the ref called the match anyhow. I guess it sets up a future rematch. Well worth checking this one out.

Canek/Negro Navarro/Trauma II vs Pirata Morgan/El Hijo De Pirata Morgan/Barba Roja: I am not a huge fan of Canek obviously but I was surprised at how agile he was even at his age. Last time I saw him he was immobile and here he could do all his usual spots. Must be hoping to get one last run somewhere so he can drop his mask? Who knows with these ancient wrestlers. Navarro and Pirata are ancient too but they were fantastic here. I'm a huge fan of the Pirata family so it was great watching them do their thing. That submission in the first fall was just SICK! Also majorly sick was Navarro's pinning hold to win the second fall for his team. Canek blew me away by doing a plancha off the top rope for the win in the third fall! God bless the reconstruction of knees!

Excellent episode of IWRG TV! Gotta go out of your way to see the top three for sure.

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

CMLL Puebla - 12/27/10 (taped 12/20/10)

Asturiano/Centella De Oro/Stigma vs Siki Osama Jr./Espiritu Maligno/Centauro De Fuego: Surprising rough matwork early on with Centella and Espiritu who are usually great. They were very loose and looked awkward trying to throw each other around. Stigma got things going against Siki Osama with an amazing quadrople springboard armdrag. Yes. I did say that. QUADROPLE SPRINGBOARD ARMDRAG! AMAZING! He followed with a headscissors on the floor. They did a nice finishing sequence ending with Osama doing a tope suicida and the rudos putting away Stigma/Centella. Second fall was also good with Asturiano getting to show off and then the rudos taking control. They kept doing assisted power bombs on the tecnicos until Stigma countered with a dropkick which led to a running somersault plancha from Centella and the remaining tecnicos put Centauro/Espiritu away. Third fall was good with lots of near submissions and everyone getting to show off armdrags. Stigma/Asturiano did dual dives and then Centella used an awesome roll-up off the second turnbuckle to put Osama away. Really good match!

Rush/Metro/Metal Blanco vs Okumura/Yoshihashi/Polvora: The TVC graphics had Sagrado listed instead of Metal Blanco. If that isn't everything wrong with CMLL, I don't know what is. I believe this was the first time we all got to see Yoshihashi on TV with his new painted face look which my buddy Bill thinks Okumura suggested since he started his career doing that sort of thing. In another bit of irony this match had a mini-feud with Rush/Yoshihashi which as I write this is the big Puebla feud leading to a hair match in 10 days. Match was pretty standard and formulatic outside of Yoshihashi busted out a reckless tope suicida - a first for him in Mexico! Metal Blanco looked really good and I remember remarking back when I originally watch this that it wouldn't last but he's sure proved me wrong! Crowd and announcers went nuts for his big moonsault dive. Rush got Okumura for the win.

Brazo De Plata/Mascara Dorada/Toscano vs Atlantis/El Averno/Rey Bucanero w/ Periquito: This was the Periquito show and nothing more. He began the match by hitting Porky with a frying pan and was basically inside the ring for the rest of the match. All the tecnicos even did spots with him. Crowd was eating it up and I'm a mark for this type of stuff too so I liked it. A match like this is actually okay when it's surrounded by 3 or 4 good matches. Where a match like this is not good is when you just had a bad match and/or another comedy match. But in this place it was good as I said and was a nice way to calm the crowd down leading into the big main event. Tecs won clean.

Ultimo Guerrero/Dragon Rojo Jr. vs La Mascara/Valiente - CMLL Tag Team Titles: Shocker was originally scheduled here as La Mascara's partner but suffered his injury the day before at Arena Coliseo which still has him out of action to this very day. CMLL found a more than suitable substituion but this match suffered from Ultimo Guerrero being involved so you had the generic Ultimo Guerrero match in tag format. Two short falls with flash finishes and then a long third fall with every generic nearfall you can think of and the tecnicos just walking into Guerrero's big moves. Valiente did his Valiente Especial which the crowd went bonkers for which was a positive. Dragon Rojo looked putrid as usual. He topped his terrible performance off by completely losing Valiente on the finishing power bomb as Ultimo Guerrero did the Guerrero Special on La Mascara for the win. Great example of one of those matches that on paper look fantastic but are not so hot in execution.

Show closing highlights had a great double tornillo from #porraReyCometa!

Enjoyable show until the main event. For someone who doesn't follow Lucha Libre hardcore like I do you may enjoy the main event much more than I did which would make this a great show.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

IWRG TV 9/26/10 (taped 9/23/10)

Chico Che/Eragon/Veneno vs Guerrero Negro/El Hijo Del Diablo/Comando Negro: Freelance was originally in this match but he was selling a tombstone from Comando Negro the week before and Veneno took his spot. OUR LOSS! Not sure what the deal was with Guerrero Negro working here for a bit and not losing his hair. Why else was he here? Seemed like they were setting him and Tony Rivera up for a match from what I recall but then he vanished. Maybe he didn't feel the payoff was good enough? This match was mainly a brawl outside of a neat segment with Chico Che flying all over the place. How a man that size does a double springboard is beyond me. Finish was typical IWRG booking gone too far as they did a DQ but it took forever to set up. Basically both Chico and Veneno were in opposite tree of woe's and the rudos rammed Eragon into each of them. But when they tried to do it again they didn't notice the ref was trying to unhook Chico and they accidentally rammed him which led to the DQ. Bleh.

Los Oficiales vs Hijo Del Cien Caras/Hijo De Mascara Ano 2000/Hijo Del Pirata Morgan (not Pirata Morgan Jr. as listed in the archive): I thought this was a fun brawl. MA2K Jr. did a nice bladejob and the Oficiales were laying in their chops. MA2K Jr. also got a nice segment to show off some flying which clearly tells us he is not legit related to any of the Dinamitas. In the third fall the Oficiales isolated Cien Jr. by pressing MA2K Jr. onto Pirata Jr. on the floor. Cien Jr. then gave up to a triple submission. Not as good as the 4 on 4 match with Oficiales vs Dinamitas from two weeks prior.

Silver King/Tony Rivera/Trauma I vs Pirata Morgan/Ultimo Gladiador/Chris Stone: This was a Relevos Incriebles AAA vs IWRG match that really made no sense. Rivera/Stone were on opposite pages for most of the match and it seemed to boil over in the third fall where they seemed to legit be throwing bombs at each other until things calmed down. Weird. Gladiador/Trauma did some nice stuff together. Things completely fell apart at the end as Silver King turned on his team and Pirata turned on his team. SHOCKING, HUH? Lots of challenges afterwards.

Totally skippable show.

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Monday, July 11, 2011

CMLL Puebla - 12/13/10 (taped 12/6/10)

Diamante, Metro, Angel Azteca Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus: Really good match. Not worked at all like the usual formulas you see. Instead the entire match was basically 1-on-1 exchanges with lots of mat wrestling and finishes coming when wrestlers hit their big moves. I really liked how this was put together and I guess I can credit Virus? Diamante took a sick double backdrop in the second fall where he took a 450 bump that didn't look fun. They seemed to head home early because the referee fucked up the finish as he counted Diamante down after Raziel's big inverted pumphandle driver even though Diamante clearly kicked out. To make it worse the ref didn't bother just ignoring it, he physically intervened and shoved Diamante out of the ring. Just amazing incompetence. Metro hit a tope suicida and Azteca made Virus submit for the win.

Brazo De Plata, Blue Panther, Hijo Del Fantasma vs El Averno, Efesto, Rey Bucanero w/ Periquito: Some nice matwork early on with Panther/Averno who are always great to watch work together. They teased Porky wanting to get at Periquito which built to later when the lil' dude kept interfereing and targeting Porky in particular although he found time to do a tope suicida on Fantasma! He even assisted in the win during the second fall by standing on Porky's back during the rudos' triple team submission! Third fall had some dives and then what was supposed to be a surprise finish as Averno/Efesto seemed to have the match won but Porky sat on both Bucanero and Periquito for the win (Bucanero was captain). It was just done so slow that the entire surprise factor was defeated.

Shocker, La Mascara, Strongman vs Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Dragon Rojo Jr.: Pretty awful. I haven't consulted the amazing luchablog archives but I wonder if there was a last minute sub here b/c Strongman and the rudos really seemed on the wrong page for most of the match. The idea was to build Shocker/La Mascara as contenders for the tag titles although Shocker ended up getting hurt before that match could take place. Finish here was Ultimo low blowing Shocker and Dragon Rojo tossing his mask to La Mascara. This set up a revenge match for the following week.

Show probably would have been better if the mini's match or local opener had aired. You aren't missing anything by Fredo not getting this show.

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